Intelligence Authorization Act For Fiscal Year 2010

Floor Speech

Intelligence Authorization Act For Fiscal Year 2010

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Madam Chair, I am proud to support this legislation because it will provide the men and women of our intelligence community with the tools they need to protect the Nation while implementing vital provisions to promote accountability and oversight.

As the Chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, I have worked to limit the intelligence community's dangerous overreliance on private contractors. To that end, I have worked hard to include section 338 in this bill, which requires the Director of National Intelligence to provide a comprehensive report to Congress on the intelligence community's use of personal service contracts. It is my hope that this report will finally give us a clear picture of how much our national security has been doled out to the lowest bidder.

I want to talk for a minute about the issue of torture. I think it is so important to underscore that the manager's amendment includes language originally proposed by Mr. McDermott that reiterates existing law on torture and that provides statutory criminal penalties for individuals who knowingly commit an act of cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment.

What I have been hearing from the Republicans is that somehow we are sacrificing our national security by not allowing the torture of our enemies. In fact, I think we are enhancing our national security by saying that we will eliminate provisions which allow for terrorists to be empowered and to recruit more people. If we stick to our values, we enhance our national security. These are already in law right now, and that is all this bill does is underscore the lawfulness of the new rules.

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